Discord delays global launch of age verification after backlash

Discord no longer plans to roll out age verification globally in March and has delayed the launch until the second half of 2026, the company announced on Tuesday.

Discord faced backlash from users earlier this month after it announced that all users would be placed in a “teen-friendly experience” by default until they are verified as adults.

The company explained on Tuesday that 90% of users will not need to verify their age and will be able to continue using Discord as usual, since most do not interact with age-restricted content and the platform’s internal safety systems can already determine the age of many adult users. These internal systems work by looking at signals such as how long the account has been in existence, whether the user has a payment method on file, and what types of servers it has.

“Let me be honest: we knew this rollout would be controversial,” Discord CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy wrote in the blog post announcing the change. “Anytime you present something that touches on identity and verification, people are going to have strong feelings. And that’s true. In hindsight, we should have provided more detail about our intentions and how the process worked.”

“The way this happened, a lot of you walked away thinking we needed to face scan and ID upload everyone just to use Discord,” he continued. “That’s not what’s happening, but the fact that so many people believe it tells us we’re failing at our primary mission: clearly explaining what we do and why we do it.”

Discord says that people who are part of the 10% of users who need to verify their age will be given options to do so. Previously, Discord stated that users could only verify their age by completing a facial age estimate or submitting an ID to Discord’s vendor partners. Now, Discord says that before expanding age verification worldwide, it plans to introduce additional verification methods, including the option to verify using a credit card.

“If you choose not to verify, here’s exactly what happens: you keep your account, servers, friends list, direct messages, and voice chat,” Vishnevsky said in the post. “The only thing that changes is that you won’t be able to access age-restricted content or change some of the default security settings designed to protect teens. Nothing else about your Discord experience will change.”

The company also plans to post information on its website about each verification vendor and its data practices, clearly identifying which vendor is being used. Additionally, it now says it will only work with vendors that perform the entire age verification process on a user’s device.

The change around vendors also comes as Discord has faced backlash for listing Persona, which is backed by an investment firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, as one of its age verification partners. Thiel is chairman and co-founder of Palantir, which has attracted controversy for its work with US immigration enforcement and other federal surveillance programs. Persona has also attracted criticism from users for its use of third-party data and partnerships with governments. Disagreement has since distanced itself from the character.

Discord also faced backlash over its age verification plans because it revealed last October that about 70,000 users may have had sensitive data, such as photos of their government ID, exposed after hackers compromised a third-party vendor the platform uses for age appeals. Discord says it is no longer working with the seller involved in this breach.